PNCA News

A retrospective exhibit of paintings and works on paper of former Pacific Northwest College of Art professor Harry Widman will be on display January 31 – March 29 at the “Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette University”:http://www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art/index.htm.

“Harry Widman: Image, Myth, and Modernism” surveys Widman’s works over the past 60 years, including works created during his over 35 years of service at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Widman studied at the University of Oregon in the ‘50s and taught at the Museum Art School (now the Pacific Northwest College of Art), from 1961 to 1997. He served as Acting Director of PNCA from 1978 – 1981 and returned to give the College Commencement address in May 1996.

The exhibition, curated by Willamette University’s art history professor Roger Hull, will feature 38 paintings and 17 works on paper drawn from public and private collections. Hull also has assembled a full-color, 112-page book that attempts to contextualize Widman’s work within the artistic events of his time.

Oregon College of Art Craft and Pacific Northwest College of Art Announce JP Reuer
as Chair of the Joint MFA in Applied Craft and Design

PORTLAND, OR – Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) and Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) announce JP Reuer as the Chair of the new joint MFA in Applied Craft and Design program.

A former Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Reuer brings a breadth of experience in design and arts education to the program. Reuer is also a LEED accredited architect and licensed general contractor, founder of JP Reuer, Architect, PA and Reuer Associates Inc., and a founding member of DesignBox, a collaborative group of creative talent from a variety of design disciplines. With a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design and a Master’s of Architecture in Affordable Housing, Reuer continues to explore socially purposed design.

“JP Reuer brings an articulated insight to the sphere of craft and design. Through his knowledge as a practitioner, augmented by his academic experience, JP understands the inherent strength of pairing capabilities of making with the sensibilities of design,” said Karl Burkheimer, OCAC Wood Department Head and search committee member.

Portland’s two oldest art colleges, OCAC and PNCA, have partnered on a joint MFA degree that fosters a new, forward-thinking model of art and design education. The creation of the joint MFA bolsters the cooperative and innovative efforts of these two growing institutions by creating a program that offers students opportunities for creative work that fuses craft, design and environmentalism within a rich academic and creative practice.

“Combining intellectual, fiscal and physical resources, institutions can create new and extraordinary educational opportunities that otherwise exceed the capacity of any one institution,” said Greg Ware, PNCA Provost. “This collaboration with OCAC is the first of such programs, and the search committee knew it had to find an individual with the vision, leadership and dedication to launch an advanced program that could set a new paradigm for creative practice education. I believe the committee found such a person in JP Reuer, and he will not only be a wonderful addition to our faculty, but will expand OCAC’s and PNCA’s outreach to, and interaction with, Portland’s art and design communities.”

Reuer also has strong connections to local, national and international creative communities and practices and companies, and the desire to create an internationally competitive program — he previously served as the director of the Tasmeem international design conference in Qatar.

“I view the act of making not simply as a means to an end, but as an integral part of designing,” said Reuer. “Enhancing the relationship between design and making is something that in my experience is not only mutually beneficial to design and craft, but also supports and gives character to local community.”

The new joint MFA in Applied Craft and Design celebrates process and tradition, innovation and cultural engagement and is the culmination of feasibility studies by an MFA Task Force consisting of OCAC and PNCA faculty members. The OCAC/PNCA MFA program will accept 15 students in the 2009-2010 school year. Application deadline is March 15, 2009.

Reuer will officially join the program full-time in February 2009. The inaugural joint MFA in Applied Craft and Design class starts in Fall 2009.

About OCAC
Established in 1907, Oregon College of Art and Craft has become a principal center for education, dialogue, and the mastery of contemporary craft for future generations of artists. The College offers a four-year BFA in Crafts, a three-year Certificate Program, a one-year Post-baccalaureate Certificate Program, and year round studio classes and workshops for adults and children of all ages and skill levels. As the only accredited private art college west of the Mississippi to offer a BFA in Crafts, OCAC is a superb laboratory for the invention of modern craft. “www.ocac.edu”:http://www.ocac.edu

About PNCA
Since its founding in 1909, Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) has become a leader in innovative educational programming that connects students to a global perspective in the visual arts. The College offers Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Communication Design, Illustration, Intermedia, General Fine Arts, Painting, Photography, Printmaking and Sculpture. In addition, the College offers a mentor-based MFA in Visual Studies and a new joint MFA in Applied Craft and Design with Oregon College of Art and Craft. PNCA has the oldest continuously running community arts education program in the Northwest. From its base in the heart of the Pearl district, PNCA is actively involved in Portland’s cultural programming through exhibitions and a vibrant public program of lectures and visiting artists from around the world. In conjunction with its Ford Institute for Visual Education (FIVE), the College is pleased to present PNCA + FIVE Idea Studios, which bring internationally renowned artists such as James Turrell, philosopher Jacques Rancière, art critic Saul Ostrow, and theorist Tom Zummer. Visit on-line for a full events calendar and to learn more about PNCA’s BFA degree, MFA in Visual Studies or Continuing Education courses for all ages and skill levels. “www.pnca.edu”:http://www.pnca.edu.

The works of former PNCA Artist-In-Residence Jenene Nagy and current PNCA Intermedia instructor Hayley Barker are featured in the December/January edition of “New American Paintings”:http://www.newamericanpaintings.com/, focusing on Pacific Coast artists and their work.

“There is a nod to post-minimalism and the poured and stretched forms of the late 1960s in the works of Jenene Nagy…” said juror Rita Gonzalez, Assistant Curator, Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “Moving off the wall and onto the floor in the manner of Lynda Benglis, Nagy compares her painted forms to props and stage sets.”

Barker’s work features “strange, ethereal forms that summon the extraterrestrial but reference the vegetal or animal worlds,” said Gonzalez.

Both artists were selected as part of a group of 40 artists from the Pacific Coast states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. Featured artists are selected on the basis of artistic merit. Since 1993, New American Paintings has served as an experiment in art publishing, featuring juried exhibitions in print as its focus. Each competition is catalogued in a regional volume, including: Mid-Atlantic, South, Midwest, West, and Pacific Coast.

An article in the January edition of Art Ltd. magazine focuses on Portland’s New American Art Union endowed series, which includes work by PNCA Faculty Stephen Slappe and PNCA Feldman Gallery + Project Space Curator Mack McFarland.

““Aiding Culture Through Couture””:http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1230067014&archive=&start_from=&ucat=39&page=reports provides an overview of the Portland arts scene in 2008 and highlights NAAU’s Couture series as “as an act of old-school arts patronage and defiant civic boosterism.”

“The Couture series”:http://www.newamericanartunion.com/Couture08/ awarded 10 Portland artists each a six-week show at in the inner Southeast gallery and an $8,000 stipend to create original artwork. The art is not for sale.

As part of the Video Gentlemen, Mack McFarland created BYOTV, an exhibit of televisions broadcasting single channel works and special reports transmitted live within the NAAU. Over 20 artists’ works — local, national and international — that critically and creatively engage televisual technoculture were included.

“Ruth Ann Brown’s Couture series is one of the best things to occur for Portland’s art scene in the years I’ve been here,” said McFarland. “I’m sure I do not speak alone when I say, I am really grateful for being selected. The grant allowed us — The Video Gentlemen — to build upon our previous works and move forward.”

Learn more about Pacific Northwest College of Art faculty member Anne Marie Oliver’s interview with Jacques Rancière — “Aesthetics against Incarnation” — currently featured in the Fall 2008 issue of “Critical Inquiry”:http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/595633, published by the University of Chicago Press.

The interview and talk continue the line of questioning Rancière pursues in his latest book The Future of the Image, a collection of essays on art and cinema.

“Under what conditions,” the philosopher asks, “might it be said that certain events cannot be represented?” Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris-VIII (Saint Denis), Jacques Rancière is the author of over 20 books, including: The Lesson of Althusser, The Ignorant Schoolmaster, On the Shores of Politics, Disagreement, The Nights of Labor, The Philosopher and His Poor, Hatred of Democracy, The Names of History,The Flesh of Words,Film Fables, and, most recently, The Future of the Image.

Oliver introduced Rancière’s February 2008 lecture, “What Makes Images Unacceptable?,” part of the PNCA+FIVE Idea Studios series at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Oliver is Assistant Professor in Intermedia, Contemporary Art Theory, MFA Contemporary Theory Seminar at PNCA. She is the co-author of The Road to Martyrs’ Square.

“View a clip of the lecture”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-ULbgFkNZs

Pacific Northwest College of Art presents “BEAUTIES,” featuring new drawings by PNCA Faculty Emeritus Robert Hanson in the Feldman Gallery and “Molly Dilworth: Dispersion” featuring new work by New-York-based artist and PNCA Artist-In-Residence Molly Dilworth in the Project Space.

Hanson’s recent drawings are part of his long-term and ongoing fascination with the human head. A long-time Professor of Painting and Drawing at PNCA, Hanson has remained a working artist in the Pacific Northwest since the early ‘70s. He is represented by Elizabeth Leach Gallery.

Molly Dilworth is a painter and curator who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Since earning her MFA from New York University in 2003, Dilworth has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally, in addition to collaborating with PNCA’s MK Guth on “Ties of Protection and Safekeeping” (2008 Whitney Biennial) and “Red Shoe Delivery Service” (Australia, England, USA).

Through PNCA’s Continuing Education classes, Elizabeth Schwartz found exceptional mentorship and inspiration that continue to nurture her art career.

When Schwartz moved to Portland from Idaho two years ago, she hadn’t practiced any fine arts in the past. She decided to take a “Continuing Education”:http://www.pnca.edu/programs/ce/ studio class at PNCA and now finds herself immersed in art.

“It is both nerve-wracking and exciting to think in terms of letting the public see my art, when two years ago I had never even considered putting paint brush to canvas… PNCA has opened wonderful new doors for me,” she said.

Beginning Painting was the only class with a vacancy that suited her level. Since then, Schwartz hasn’t stopped painting and hasn’t stopped taking classes — she particularly enjoys the unstructured nature of the Painting Atelier class with Stephen Mauldin. In Fall 2008, she was admitted into the painting thesis class at Portland State University, and is looking forward to showing at Portland’s Urban Grind café in early 2009.